Expression-regulator.



J. SAMPERE. EXPRESSION REGULATOR. APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 10, 1911. 1 091 086. Patented Mar. 24, 1914.

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v EXPRESSION REGULATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 1911.

Patented Mar. 24, 1914.

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J. SAMPERE. EXPRESSION REGULATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 19i1.

Patented Mar. 24, 1914b INVENTOR WITNESSES JOEE SAMFERE zwewww BY W 44M nd vi' M l NOR/Y8 COLUIIIA mm 0a.,vmnmnl. l. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EXPRESSION- SSIGNOR TO THE REGINA COMPANY, OF RPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

REGULATOR.

Specification of Application filed June 10,

Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. -24, 1914. Serial No. 632,319.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSE SAMPERE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Expression-Regulators for Automatically-Operated Pianos, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to pianos of the class described, in which bellows are operated to produce suction, which suction is employed, through the intermediation of a pneumatic motor and through pneumatic devices, to move a perforated note sheet over a tracker board, and to operate the piano action in conformity with said movement and with the perforations of the note sheet in a manner well known in the art.

My invention relates particularly to pianos as described, when the bellows are actuated by some form of power-driven motor, and where it is intended that the operation of the piano shall be entirely automatic; the invention may be .used, however, in pianos having pedal operated or some analogous type of bellows.

In the usual pneumatically operated piano, pneumatic devices are so arranged that by manual shifting of a certain valve or valves the piano action is operated at a greater or less air tension so that the notes are struck with correspondingly greater or less force. In this way any desired interpretation as regards intensity may be given a rendered selection.

In my invention now to be described, I effect the shifting of the valve or valves referred to automatically rather than manually.

Briefly, my invention comprises a series of pneumatics, each of which is controlled by and corresponds to an extra perforation of the note sheet. These pneumatics are all related to a single valve which controls a series of varying air pressures and determines which of said pressures shall actuate the piano action. By causing these extra perforations to uncover their corresponding tracker holes either singly or in combination any desired adjustments of the valve may be effected.

My invention will be better understood by referring to the drawings accompanying,

which are hereby made a part of this specificatlon.

In these drawings, Figure 1 front elevation of ing the pneumatic represents a the control chest comprismechanlsm used to actu- Fig. 4 is in part a through the control chest alongthe line 4 4 of Fig. l, and in part of a front elevation of the valve'chest, whose valve is actuated by the mechanism of the control chest; Fig. 5 is a section looking from the right, taken along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a sec tlon looking from above, taken along the line 66 of Fig. 4; Fig. 7 is an enlarged view in elevation, partly broken away, of the slide actuated by one of the pneumatics of the control chest; and Figs. 8, 9 and 10 are side elevations on a larger scale than the previous Figs. (1 to 6 inclusive), showing different positions of the several pneumatics of the control chest.

Referring to the drawings, the control chest 1 comprises a casing 2 consisting of a back 3 and a base containing an elongated chamber 4. A pipe 5 leading bellows (not shown). In the base, above the chamber 4, are provided three similar valves 6, 7 and 8. These valves are of a type common in pneumatic players and each comprisestwo disks 9, 10, mounted upon a spindle, said disks lying in passages 11, 11, 11 and above chamber 4, and adapt ed to be moved up or down so as to close respectively either an opening 12 to the external atmosphere, or an opening 13 to the chamber 4. The lower part of the spindle carries a disk 14 resting upon a flexible closure 15, situated at the end of a passage 16, leading to a pipe 16, which in turn leads to an appropriate hole in the tracker board.

Each passage 11, 11, 11 joins vertical passages 17, 17, 17 opening through the front of back 3 at 18 into the interior of main pneumatics 19, 20 and 21. Passages 17 and 17 are also led out from the bottom of the base into the interior of smaller auX- iliary pneumatics 22 and 23. The passage 17 connecting with pneumatic 21 also branches off laterally by the passage 24 to Each of these passages auxiliary pneumatic 25 situated at the end of the base instead of at the bottom.

Each of the passages 16 belonging to the two pneumatics 19 and 20, comes out on the front of the base at 26 and 27 within recesses 28 formed in a slide 29 connected with the movable element of auxiliary pneumatic 25. 16 is also connected with a short transverse passage 30 leading to the external atmosphere on the front of the box and normally covered by a button 31 connected with the movable element of the auxiliary pneumatics 22 and 23.

Fixed to a spindle 31 which pivots upon supports 32 attached to the back 3 is a valveoperating lever 33, the shorter end of which is connected by a link to the movable element of pneumatic 19 while the longer end, about twice the length of the shorter, is similarly connected to a spindle 34 which passes through one end of valve chest 35 and has attached to its end within said valve chest a slide 36. The valve chest is divided by a horizontal partition37 into a rear chamber 38 and a front chamber 39, the latter being subdivided into three similar chambers by transverse partitions 40 and 41. Openings 42, 43 and 44 join these three similar chambers to the one larger chamber and from the latter a pipe 45 leads to the pneumatic mechanism for actuating the piano action. Pipes 46, 47 and 48 lead from the smaller chambers' to equalizers (not shown), furnishing suction, as measured on the mercury manometer, of 24 inches, 14 inches and 9 inches respectively. A flap valve 49 is adapted to normally close the opening 44. The movable members of pneumatics 20 and 21 are reversed as compared with the movable member of pneumatic 19, 2'. 6., whereas the movable member of pneumatic 19 pivots at the top of the control chest 1, the movable members of pneumatics 20 and 21 pivot at the bottom thereof.

Pivoted to the support 50 attached to the back 3 is a triangular shaped lever 51, the longer arm of which is adapted to be engaged by a. strip 52 attached to the movable element of pneumatic 20 and the shorter end of which (about half the length of the longer end) is adapted to be engaged by a smaller strip 53 fixed upon pneumatic 19. A strip 54 attached to the pneumatic 21 is adapted to engage the end of a lever 55 fixed upon the same spindle 31, to which is attached the lever 33. Each pneumatic 19, 20 and 21 has a stop 56 attached. to its movable member; by means of a threaded shank this step may be worked in and out with reference to the movable member, the maximum collapse of which is thereby determined.

The operation of my invention is as follows: Normally, the device is as represented in Figs. 1 to 6 inclusive, with none of the bellows, either of the principal or auxiliary pneumatics collapsed. In this position, the hole 43 of the valve chest is open and a 14 inch suction is transmitted to the piano action through pipes 47 and 45. Suction through pipe 46 is shut 0E by the slide 36 which covers hole 42, and through pipe 48 by the flap valve 49. This condition of the valve chest corresponds to mezzo-forte or M. F. To change from M. F. to forte or F., the note sheet should have a hole provided to uncover the tracker board hole at the end of pipe 16 belonging to the pneumatic 19. This will cause valve 6 to rise and pneumatic 19 to completely collapse, carrying the slide 36 to the limit of its throw, uncovering opening 42 leading to the 24 inch suction and cutting off opening 43 and 44 leading to the 14 and 9 inch suctions. Auxiliary pneumatic 22 will also collapse and connect passage 30 with the external atmosphere which will therefore maintain the valve 6 permanently elevated after the hole in the tune sheet has passed the hole in the tracker board. Fig. 8 shows this condition of the main pneumatics. To change from M. F. to piano, two holes in the racker board, one corresponding to pneumatic 19 and the other corresponding to pneumatic 20 are used. When these holes are uncovered, both pneumatics 19 and 20, as also the auxiliary pneumatics 22 and 23 are collapsed. The collapse of pneumatic 20 causes the lever 51 to be depressed into the position shown in Fig. 9 in which position pneumatic 19 can no lapse as shown in Fig. 8, but will be stopped by lever 51 when partially collapsed as shown in Fig. 9. Pneumatic 20 is able to overcome the pneumatic 19, by reason of the unequal lengths into which the lever 51 is divided. This position of pneumatic 19 permits the slide 36 to move sufficiently to close opening 43 while continuing to close 42 in which position the flap valve 49 will be lifted owing to the 9 inch suction. To return from either F. or P. to M. F., a third tracker hole corresponding to pneumatic 21 is uncovered upon which pneumatic 21 and the auxiliary pneumatic 25 will both be collapsed. The collapse of auxiliary pneumatic 25 will move the slide 29 so as to cut ofi-the external atmosphere fro-m the valves 6 and 7. These valves will consequently fall and the auxiliary pneumatics 22, 23 and the main pneumatics 19 and 20 again expand. Pneumatic 21 by reason of the strip 54 engaging lever 55 will help expand pneumatic 19 and thus help to restore the lever 33 and slide 36 to the positions shown in Fig. 4. The remaining position changes of F. to P., P to F., etc., are readily made by causing suitable tracker holes to be uncovered it suitable combination.

"While 1 have described my invention a:

, embodying three main and three auxiliar longer completely col- 1 sets of pneumatics constructed and arranged after the manner above set forth as I may find convenient and thus secure a corresponding number of intensities.

While I have described my invention as applied to pneumatically operated pianos, operated by suction, it is obvious that instead of suction I might employ pressure Without changing the essential character of the device, and I intend my claims to be construed so as to cover either suction or pressure operated mechanism.

My invention may be applied to organs and to any other instruments of analogous character Without departing from the spirit thereof.

I claim:

1. An expression regulator comprising a valve chest provided with separate suction sources adapted to be connected With the pneumatic mechanism leading to the piano action, means including a slide for selectively connecting the sources With the pneumatic mechanism, a pneumatic connected to said means for moving said slide, other pneumatics controlling the degree of collapse of said first named pneumatic, and means controlled by the note sheet for actu ating said pneumatics in varying combination.

utilize as many 2. An expression regulator comprising a 35 valve chest provided With separate suction sources adapted to be connected With the pneumatic mechanism leading to the piano action, means including a slide for selectively connecting the sources with the pneumatic mechanism, a pneumatic connected to said means for moving said slide, other pneumatics controlling the degree of collapse of said first named pneumatic, means controlled by the note sheet said pneumatics in varying combination, and means for restoring said pneumatics to normal position.

3. An expression regulator comprising a valve chest provided with separate suction sources adapted to be connected With the pneumatic mechanism leading to the piano action, means including a slide for selectively connecting the sources With the pneumatic mechanism, a pneumatic connected to said means for moving said slide, the degree of collapse of said pneumatic determining the effective suction source, and means controlled by the note sheet for fixing said degree of collapse.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

JOSE SAMPERE.

Witnesses:

ELMER GLoRELYoUNG, JOHN A. KEHLENBECK.

copies oi this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0."

for actuating 45 

